Finding an early-alert system that fits an institution’s culture is key to its success, said Fox Troilo, senior research adviser for higher education at Hanover Research. Hanover works with institutions to look at which factors might be causing student attrition by surveying current and past students who have dropped out of classes. This data are then used to create a predictive model that identifies students who are likely to be most at risk. (Note: Hanover does some survey work for Inside Higher Ed.)

Universities largely have the same goals for their early-alert systems: they want to improve student retention rates and ensure more students graduate. But which data need to be tracked and collected to achieve these goals will vary by institution, Troilo said.